Alternatives to Bambu Glue Stick

Are there any alternatives to the Bambu Glue Stick?
It is currently sold out…

I think the prusa glue Stick will do the same :wink:

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Spricht etwas gegen 3dlac?

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You could probably give regular pva glue stick a try and see how that goes. Let us know if it provides good adhesion, thanks!

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Wham Bam PEX flex plate for Bambu X1. No glue stick needed.

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Bambu Textured sheet - no glue stick required for most filaments
Energetic PEI sheet no glue stick require for most filaments
etc

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Why is the Wham Bam plate so expensive ? (ok, there are the “QR code stickers”, but other than that, it seems quite generic).
I also have a 3rd party textured plate and it’s also working fine (no glue needed) (UniXYZ) :

(same price than the official Bambu Lab textured plate, so it’s probably better to take the official one in the end, i would say)

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I was looking for an alternative to the glue that is supplied.
The glue is polyvinylpyrrolidone (pvp)
Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is a water-soluble polymer of formula (C6H9NO)n, consisting of 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone monomers.
Many glues with these specifications are commercially available.
Easy to obtain.

If you use the textured PEI I have had excellent success using the temperature of 70° for the PLA plate. Perfect every time no glue stick know nothing but that’s just using PLA. I can’t say anything about any other filament.

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@u.frenzel Type “PVP glue stick” into amazon, and you’ll find a flood of products to choose from.

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Costco
Scotch Permanent Glue Stick, 0.28 oz, 24 ct
Item 235870
$8.99 = online price

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I don’t think you want to use “permanent” glue. You want something that can wash off.

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I take it back. On closer examination it seems there may be possible seller subterfuge (as revealed in many of the amazon reviews). It may not be easy to reliably acquire true PVP glue stick on amazon.

The issue is that some of the glue sticks that claim to be PVP may actually be PVA instead.

Question: Does it even matter? Is PVA just as good, or is it worth searching out and validating that a particular glue stick truly is PVP?

Complicating matters further is that some glue sticks (such as “Elmer’s”) don’t identify what they are made from. And the ones from China, which are most of the rest, are God knows what, regardless of what they say or claim on their labels.

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Reporting back: I just now tried the Elmer’s glue stick (disappearing purple version), and it worked even better with Sunllu PETG than the Bambulab gule stick did. Much better releases. Go figure.

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I have to use gluestick on the cold plate after every print. I just very lightly caress the spots that turned white where the PLA stuck.
After 10 prints I spray the bed with all purpose cleaner and whipe the bed to smear the dissolved gluestick to a new uniform layer. Works for me.
Trick is NOT to press on the gluestick if your “healing” the white spots after each print.

I also guess it’s time for PEI.

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On reddit, in the early days (*), many people were suggesting to use WINDEX (US window cleaner spray) as a very good and easier to use alternative to Bambu Glue Stick (easier to apply, less or even no clean-up to be done, no white traces on prints). Windex - Wikipedia

image

i’ve not been able to find european valid alternatives (despite the chimical composition being available on wikipedia)

  • : in the meanwhile, most people (including me) have switched to Textured PEI plates, with which you don’t need to apply anything, so it’s of course even simpler / easier.
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I’ve started using Elmer’s “purple, disappearing” glue stick, and that seems to work well. Only reason I used that is that’s all the local supermarket had. I’ve just received a large pack of UHU glue sticks.

For it’s actual purpose, I’ve used the “Amazon Basics” glue stick before, and those are cràp at actual gluing, but might well be ideal as a release agent? I dunno.

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I’ve been printing PETG on the engineering plate with glue stick while I wait for my textured PEI plates to arrive. The one cool thing about the glue stick approach is not only does it aid in the PETG release (which is significant, because PETG really likes to grab build plates hard), but that after a few prints I can wash off literally everything with just hot water alone. Although it may look as though traces of PETG have welded themselves to the build plate prior to the wash-off, when I wash off all the glue stick from the engineering plate, all those PETG traces ultimately release and disappear altogether. No scraping with a scraper required. That’s pretty cool. The engineering build plate is magically restored to “like new” condition.

In the past, on the Prusa printer, I used the Windex sprayed onto PEI as a release agent when printing PETG, and it kinda sorta worked for me. I just wasn’t sure whether it would work on the Bambu engineering plate.

I have been using the purple glue stick as well for years now and it works great.

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Elmers washable glue stick
Walmart $3.00 for a jumbo stick

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